Let me clarify one thing first. The title should read '...but Show a Very Low Level of Activity'. I like this case study as it reflects well one of the most common questions our clients and other event participants ask us: we would like to leverage twitter, so should we launch one main corporate account to do everything?

Or should we launch several accounts to cover specific geographical areas, market segments, or applications like media relations or customer care?

The levels of activity, engagement and 'success' vary tremendously from oneregion to the other. The EMEA region is still lagging behind North America,and it doesn't seem as keen to engage in conversations as the more and more active LATAM and APAC regions.

So which countries are leading the twitter revolution in Asia Pacific? I invite you to check out our video Top10.

The levels of activity, engagement and 'success' vary tremendously from oneregion to the other. The EMEA region is still lagging behind North America,and it doesn't seem as keen to engage in conversations as the more and more active LATAM and APAC regions.

So which countries are leading the way on twitter in Latin America? I invite you to check out our video Top10.

The levels of activity, engagement and 'success' vary tremendously from one region to the other. The EMEA region is still lagging behind North America, and it doesn't seem as keen to engage in conversations as the more and more active LATAM and APAC regions.

So what is the situation in France where financial institutions have been at the forefront of digital innovation for the last couple of years? I invite you to check out our video Top 10.

Since early 2009, my Visible Banking team have been tracking how financial institutions are using social media services like facebook (now over 1,100 pages and apps in 75 countries) and twitter (over 1,600 accounts in 72 countries). It gives us some unique insights we share with our clients to help them immediately increase the level of engagement on those popular online communities.

Google + was launched on 28 June 2011, and in the last four months, everything has been said of Google's latest venture in the world of social media. This is the fastest growing 'social network' ever with 40 million 'users' (vs 'active users') at the end of October 2011.

So how big is the opportunity for brands and how critical it is to build an active presence on this other social media 'channel'? More importantly, should financial institutions hurriedly jump on the bandwagon and create another social media profile without much conviction or engagement?

I will also talk you through one of the key challenges on facebook for financial institutions: driving engagement via an open wall. Surprisingly, we found that the majority of facebook pages in financial services are 'open' and 'at risk'... Stay tuned on Visible Banking!

I will say it again. If it is easy to setup an account and 'be on twitter' (it essentially takes only a few minutes), very few banks, insurances firms or asset management boutiques have started to use this increasingly popular communication channel and actively engage with their customers, prospects, influencers, and employees on twitter: we found that no less than 90% of the accounts we are tracking are not 'active'...

I believe the financial services industry worldwide was lacking of a comprehensive benchmark on social media activity on more and more popular online communities like facebook or twitter.

This is precisely why back in early 2009 me and my team at Visible Banking started tracking the social media presence of banks, insurance, investment firms and more widely financial services firms all over the world.

I am delighted to announce that, as of 1st October 2011, my team was tracking a cumulative 2,738,148 followers from 1,560 twitter accounts in 72 countries (source: the Visible Banking Twitter Watch series).

In the new few days, I will share some of your latest unique insights on facebook and twitter via a few video posts. I will also confirm that the financial services industry hasn't started to really use twitter yet (90% of the accounts being 'inactive') and the majority of facebook pages are 'open' and 'at risk'. Stay tuned on Visible Banking.

If it is easy to setup an account and 'be on twitter' (it essentially takes only a few minutes), very few banks, insurances firms or asset management boutiques understand how to leverage this increasingly popular communication channel: accounts not branded and don't necessarily look 'ligit', no proper content strategy and a very low level of activity...

According to twitaholic.com, this number equals just about a fifth of the follower base of...Justin Bieber (!) which would put the whole industry as the #97 most followed twitter account in the world. I invite you to check out how the industry is doing on facebook (hint hint: it 'involves' Beyonce)...

The first 'brand' is CNN, #24 on the list with over 4.7 million followers. The first page in our benchmark, @AmericanExpress (with 156k followers) wouldn't even make the Top 1000 (>400k followers).

VB Twitter Watch: Tracking over 1,5k Accounts WorldwideI believe the financial services industry worldwide was lacking a comprehensive benchmark of social media activities on more and more popular online communities like facebook or twitter. This is precisely why back in early 2009 me and my team at Visible Banking started tracking the social media presence of banks, insurance, investment firms and more widely financial services firms all over the world.

Top 10s: Countries, Regions, Insurance and Credit Unions I invite you to check out our Top 10s for the insurance industry, the credit union industry as well as the following countries and regions: France, UK, Spain, Asia Pacific (APAC), Latin America (LATAM).

Industry Feedback

“Christophe's book is really the must-have synopsis of the current state-of-play in social media in banking. Christophe has taken a deep passion for the topic, and turned it into an account of the landscape valuable to anyone who has social media responsibilities in financial services” James Gardner, General Manager at Spigit

“Christophe is extremely well informed about the banking and financial services industries. He's at all the right conferences, and digs deep with his interviews of all the influencers and innovators. He's also a tremendously nice guy :-)” Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO at Mint Software

“Christophe seems to have his finger on the pulse of the financial services industry. Visible Banking has become "the" source of information for innovations in the financial services industry.”Tim Collins, SVP-Experiential Marketing at Wells Fargo